Our UGPs - City/Region Deals for NZ?

There are five Urban Growth Partnerships that undertake a form of spatial planning for New Zealand centred on Hamilton, Tauranga, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown. With planning reform and the rise of concepts like City/Region deals these partnerships will need to grow and evolve. One example is Futureproof.

Futureproof has existed since 2008 as a partnership between iwi, local Councils and the government. It has achieved significant outcomes, including delivery of an integrated settlement pattern and transport network based around the Waikato Expressway.

More recently the partnership has focussed on complying with the requirements of the NPS- Urban Development and the changes to the settlement pattern required to achieve a range of broader outcomes such as the restoration and protection of the Waikato River in accordance with the requirements of Te Ture Whaimana and the drive to achieve transport emission reduction via mode shift activities. The paper will outline how the Futureproof Strategy works as a co-management entity to achieve these outcomes.

The partners are now confronting the evolving expectations of spatial strategies and the challenge of affordability that comes with the potent mix of rapid population growth, the need for new infrastructure and changing community and legislative expectations. New funding models and changes to governance and delivery models are required to achieve these sometimes conflicting outcomes. Of particular note is the emerging concept of place based implementation agreements, partnership investment deals and other new delivery models often referred to as City/Region Deals. What will this changing environment mean for partnerships such as Futureproof? What lessons might apply to other parts of NZ?